Urban forest carbon stock and biodiversity assesment at Nagan Raya Regency

Urban forest at Nagan Raya Regency is located in the central government and becomes a green open space that provides many benefits both directly and indirectly for the entire community in the region. Nagan Raya urban forest has various types of trees that usually found in low land mineral soil, such as Vitex pubescens locally known as Mane and Artocarpus blumei locally known as Tarap. Besides, the urban forest of nagan raya has become the habitat of several species of primates, reptiles and birds. In order to calculate the carbon stock of Nagan Raya urban forest, we use the “carbon calculator” tool developed by Michigan State University. By using nested plot of 5 m x 5 m for pile (small tree) category; 10 m x 10 m plot for pole (medium tree) category and 20 m x 20 m plot for tree category. With 12 total plots that are systematically spread throughout Nagan Raya urban forest. Averagely, carbon stock at Nagan Raya urban forest is 353,72 tCha-1. Naturally, trees in the climax condition tend to have less increment and will rotten. We suggest that maintenance and replanting of Nagan Raya urban forest is necessary to replace plants that have entered the category of “old” or low increment with made regeneration types to optimize the function of Nagan Raya urban forest as one of the buffer systems for the urban community.

Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Award Lecture: Optimism and Health: Resource or Delusion?

The lecture will be given by the 2020 Baltes Award recipient, William Chopik, PhD, of Michigan State University. The recipient of the 2021 Baltes Award is Laura B. Zahodne, PhD, of the University of Michigan. The Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation Award in Behavioral and Social Gerontology recognizes outstanding early-career contributions in behavioral and social gerontology. The award is generously funded by the Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation.

Rural communities need better state education policies

The specific needs of rural schools and communities have received limited attention from state policy makers, and many state programs have only added to the challenges that school districts in rural areas face. Michigan State University researchers surveyed and interviewed rural superintendents in Michigan to learn more about their situations. Superintendents identified teacher recruitment and retention, the need for mental health services, limited broadband access, and insufficient funding as their most pressing challenges. The researchers note that addressing these challenges will require state leaders to pay specific attention to rural needs and develop rural-conscious education policies.

Social and Professional Impact of Learning Communities Within the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate Program at Michigan State University

At Michigan State University (MSU), the AGEP learning community features the participation of over 70% of the African-American, Latinx, and Native-American under-represented minorities (URM), also referred to as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) doctoral students in fields sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Monthly learning community (LC) meetings allow AGEP participants to create dialogues across disciplines through informal oral presentations about current research. The learning communities also offer opportunities to share key information regarding graduate school success and experience; thus providing a social network that extends beyond the academic setting. At MSU, AGEP also provides an interdisciplinary and multigenerational environment that includes graduate students, faculty members, post-docs and prospective graduate students. Using monthly surveys over a 4-year period, we evaluated the impact of this AGEP initiative focusing on the utility of the program, perceptions of departmental climate, career plans and institutional support. Findings indicate that AGEP participants consider their experiences in the program as vital elements in the development of their professional identity, psychological safety, and career readiness. Experiences that were identified included networking across departments, focus on career placement, involvement in minority recruitment and professional development opportunities. Additionally, AGEP community participants resonated with the “sense of community” that is at the core of the MSU AGEP program legacy. In this article, we proposed a variation of Tomlinson’s Graduate Student Capital model to describe the AGEP participants’ perceptions and experiences in MSU AGEP. Within this 4-year period, we report over 70% graduation rate (completing with advanced degrees). More than half of Ph.D. students and almost 30% of master’s degree students decided to pursue academia as their careers. In addition, we found a high satisfaction rate of AGEP among the participants. Our analysis on graduate student capital helped us identify motivating capital development by years spent at MSU and as an AGEP member. These findings may provide some insight into which capitals may be deemed important for students relative to their experiences at MSU and in AGEP and how their priorities change as they transition toward graduation.

Mapping the Black Comic Imaginary: Beyond the Black Panther at the MSU Museum

The historical link between Afrofuturism and comics offers a vital avenue to explore black speculative practice.  Identifying comics that reflect the structure of Afrofuturism provides a critical way to understand the intersection between liberation and speculation at the heart of Afrofuturism. This commentary explores the curator’s framing of the utility of organizing Beyond the Black Panther: Vision of Afrofuturism in American Comic exhibition at the MSU Museum in Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI, USA.

491 Supporting Virtual Student Inclusivity

Since 2005, Michigan State University has offered an online graduate-level course in animal welfare assessment. The course was designed to overcome geographic barriers in terms of limited instructor expertise in welfare at individual universities and to reach an international student audience. Over 280 students have taken the course—including undergraduate, veterinary, and graduate students; practicing veterinarians; and professionals. Students have attended from 22 states and 13 different countries, including Thailand, Canada, Nepal, Kenya, China, and Australia. The course was designed and continues to be modified to accommodate students attending from different time zones, with different types of technology, and with different speeds and reliabilities of Internet access. An asynchronous format is used, with content delivered via short, recorded lectures and videos as well as electronically available textbook chapters and journal articles. In response to student and instructor needs, the course has evolved from a tech heavy but bandwidth intensive format to one using simpler technology and less bandwidth to reduce student barriers to participate and ensure equitable content access and engagement. Content is offered through the Desire 2 Learn course management system at MSU, which also performs accessibility checks of content. Lectures and videos are captioned to help accommodate visually impaired students or those in noisy environments and PDF handout versions of lecture slides are also made available. Rubrics and examples are used to guide completion of assignments. In 2020, the course was co-taught by MSU, Texas A&M and Virginia Tech. Several class meetings were held via Zoom to allow students to meet and interact with each other, though issues with scheduling prohibited all students from attending. Feedback surveys indicate students are generally satisfied with course content, delivery technology and interactions with instructors and peers. Creating an inclusive virtual environment requires attention to student constraints, with simpler typically being more accommodating.